The present invention relates to an aircraft fuel jettison system, and more particularly to an aircraft fuel jettison system which independently jettisons fuel from a multiple of fuel tanks to maintain equal aircraft balance.
Aircraft often include provisions for the jettison of fuel to selectively reduce the overall weight of the aircraft. This may be necessitated in response to particular conditions.
Fuel is conventionally jettisoned by a fuel jettison system with auxiliary jettison pumps and associated piping to pump fuel from the aircraft fuel tanks to an overboard location. Such a system utilizes auxiliary pumps within each fuel tank which are not used for any other purpose and which comprise a significant load factor and installation expense.
Conventional fuel jettison systems generally rely upon existing fuel tank quantity meters to determine the quantity of fuel which has been jettisoned. This may complicate aircraft control under certain circumstances as conventional fuel jettison systems typically just jettison to a predefined useable fuel remaining level irrespective of fuel location and aircraft fuel balance.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a fuel jettison system which provides independent jettisoning to a multiple of useable fuel remaining levels from a multiple of fuel tanks to maintain equal balance.